As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Looks like another magical day! Love that Minnie had to get just the right color for her autograph! Lots of great pics overall, and lunch looked soo good! Mac and cheese is just about my favorite (I got it to go from Jiko about 4 times the last time I stayed over there!)
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Wow, I can't believe you did so well with characterpalooza...twice! I'm beginning to think it was just bad timing for us and that we should definitely try this again. Unfortunately, I may have issues trying to convince Jeff to go back.
Love all your photopass shots!
It's nice that you were able to continue on and have some good times. Glad the character therapy helped!
I'm glad you got to meet Remy. Such a shame that he's gone. It was a perfect fit from the movie. I love the photo of Scott cooling off in the fountain!
Looks like another magical day! Love that Minnie had to get just the right color for her autograph! Lots of great pics overall, and lunch looked soo good! Mac and cheese is just about my favorite (I got it to go from Jiko about 4 times the last time I stayed over there!)
Thanks! that mac n cheese - ahhhh - so good!!! glad that we shared it though as it was very rich, but good!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
I LOL when I saw the picture of Scott sticking his head in the fountain.
Yep - that's my big kid, I mean husband!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMA
Wow, I can't believe you did so well with characterpalooza...twice! I'm beginning to think it was just bad timing for us and that we should definitely try this again. Unfortunately, I may have issues trying to convince Jeff to go back.
Love all your photopass shots!
It's nice that you were able to continue on and have some good times. Glad the character therapy helped!
Thanks! yes - it is all about the timing - obviously I am only familiar with the summer hours - but we were told between 5:30-6:30 on nights of Fantasmic - we found it was usually about 6.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm glad you got to meet Remy. Such a shame that he's gone. It was a perfect fit from the movie. I love the photo of Scott cooling off in the fountain!
Thanks! he was so darn cute - and a real bummer that he is no longer there
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
When we arrived back at BLT, Scott was on the phone with home, finding out all the details…….now this is where it got frustrating even more for him – come to find out, his sister insisted that the service had to be on Saturday!!! Originally his mom was telling him Monday, but apparently his sister won (as usual). The problem we saw with this was that this weekend was a HUGE annual event in our town and the town across the river – there was a big sailfest, with major fireworks and all – and the street that the funeral home was on closes at a specific time, as well as most of that surrounding area. So we knew that the funeral home was not the ones pushing for this date. But oh well – all the arrangements had been made – so he was able to switch our flights to Friday, only costing us a few hundred dollars more, rather than thousands. Problem here though, was that we had flown out of Providence airport (which is where my car was) and we were now flying into Hartford! Oh well, settle that by renting a nice SUV (so that we have a vehicle large enough for all of us for service, although mine would have been fine as well – I can seat 7) and then drive up Saturday night and pick up my car at Providence. Of course, plenty of friends offered to help by getting my car, or picking us up, etc., but we didn’t want to burden anyone, and we realized that we both had both sets of keys to my car in Florida with us! And the ticket for the parking, etc. And as I am sure most of you know, most flights out of MCO do not leave on time (at least for us anyway), and honestly, we knew that once we got home – the reality of it all was really going to really hit us and we preferred to be alone, and be able to go straight home.
While Scott had been taking care of all of this – I wanted to be able to give him his space to do so, Emily and I headed to the pool for a bit – we also had done some shopping over at the gift shop in the Contemporary – I was actually surprised at the DVC selections that they had there and picked up a pink DVC tee for myself. Scott met up with us at the pool when he had everything confirmed. He had also spoken with BLT – and luckily we were able to get our money back for Friday night (we had booked that night cash, as we had exhausted our points this trip) – that was where the DVC trip insurance worked well – there were no issues at all with that. Also – just so that you know, after we returned home, Scott spoke to higher authorities about the whole flight issue – and needless to say, we were issued a credit for the amount that we had to pay – they wouldn’t issue a refund, but we got a credit (which allowed Emily and I to return to our Happy place for her birthday!).
So after freshening up, we walked over to MK – it was a little after 6:30 at this point.
We stopped for a few photopass photos:
None of us were hungry enough for a whole meal – and Emily and I heard that Liberty Square Market had sweet potatoes – so we headed there got one to share. Scott had gone into Columbia Harbour House to get a New England Clam Chowder and we met up in the table area of the new Rapunzel area (charged my phone a bit) and sat and enjoyed people watching while we had our “snacks” – this area is really great for just sitting and relaxing!
I don’t really recall exactly – but I do believe that we rode Peter Pan’s flight and also Mickey’s PhilharMagic after our snacks.
We then wandered over to the New Fantasyland area – as another snack was in mind…..
But of course, I had to get photos of the beautiful castles at dusk.
We stopped in Gaston’s Tavern and grabbed a Roasted Pork Shank for all of us to pick at, and Emily had a LeFou’s Brew.
Emily really wanted to see a few more characters again, as she was now trying to fill the autograph book for her friend, so we met up with Mickey again! His hugs are always good for the soul!
And then the Princesses ~
Cinderella:
Aurora:
And Rapunzel:
Rapuzel loved what Emily was doing for her friend - and wanted to see who else we had met!
When we exited from the Princesses – it dropped you in the gift shop (of course! ) and Scott noticed that a CM had a pin that he was missing to complete a set – so he traded with her! And I don’t know why – other than Scott just being the goofy friendly person he is – I took a photo of the two of them together!
We headed out of MK to go back to DTD as I was still on a mission to find that pearl cage I had been searching for. So we walked back to BLT and got our rental car and drove down.
I headed straight for the Pearl Factory kiosk – and found a very friendly CM there, explained to her what I was looking for – she sadly said they were out – she had sold the last one they had a few hours earlier………..BUT she could call another of their stores to see if they had one……….which she did……….and she found one! Of course, this store was all the way over on the other side of Orlando and we were nearing our time to end , and she offered to stop by there on her way in tomorrow and pick it up for me to bring to DTD!!! I cried I was so surprised! Of course I told her that was not necessary, I could wait until my next trip – and she insisted! She said she literally drives right by there on her way to work! She took our cell phone number so that she could send a text when she came in tomorrow confirming if she had the pearl cage. I was so surprised by her gesture! That is a TRULY MAGICAL CM!! And I am so sorry to say that I honestly cannot remember her name now!
After that, Emily & I were craving some Goofy Candy Company concoction – so we wandered in there – and had some “Create Your Own Treats” made specifically for each of us!
Emily ordered a Mickey Rice Crispy Treat dipped in White Chocolate with Assorted Sprinkles and crushed Oreo’s with a Milk Chocolate Drizzle.
I had ordered a Caramel Apple dipped in White Chocolate with Chopped Peanuts drizzled in White Chocolate (and again, they sliced it for me!). YUM!!!!
With our treats packaged up with headed back to BLT to enjoy our treats and climb into bed! Tomorrow would be our last full day at Disney.
Up Next: Scott - Put that Flag down!!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
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Oh that is truly an awesome Cast Member and talk about going above and beyond for you. Mind you, I think it's karma, as you guys certainly deserved some magic, especially after everything that had already happened to you and the arrangements for the service.
Oh that is truly an awesome Cast Member and talk about going above and beyond for you. Mind you, I think it's karma, as you guys certainly deserved some magic, especially after everything that had already happened to you and the arrangements for the service.
Thank you Cheryl - yes - this moment makes me realize again that things happen for a reason.
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I am glad you were able to switch your flight without too much of an added expense and were able to work out the last nigt with BLT without a hassle.
What a mess with Scott's sister. So sorry for that for you guys.
That pork shank looks amazing!
Mickey is good for the soul!
What an amazing CM! Your story made me tear up! I hope you did that pearl cage!
I just wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU to all of you for hanging in with me - being there as a support for me and my family - this trip as difficult as it was, was also just what we needed, and I know that some people may not agree with the way we handled things - but we did what we felt was best for us, our family. With all that has happened over the years, we have come to realize that we are the most important to each other, and need to cherish every moment we have with each other.
And I am sorry -but I am going to vent once again...............as many of you know my MIL suffers from mental health issues, and it has progressively gotten worse over the months, with many ups and downs - and as I am writing - she is on the phone with Scott belittling him - that he never does anything for her, she's a bother to him and everyone else, etc., that his shoulder injury is because of all the overtime he works......ya de dah.......My head is ready to explode - we live less than a mile from her - when Scott does have a day off - he goes over there to make sure she has enough wood, etc, our niece grocery shops for her - Scott drives her to each and every appointment, on and on and on..................it is so sad that she is this way - and she is now telling him that everyone is telling her to just write him off!! Really???? Not sure how much more Scott can actually take before he is the one doing the writing off
I know that my husband would give up the world for his family - he works very hard -yes he works a lot of hours - but he loves his job - and wants to provide for his family - and he will soon be out of work for quite a length of time - and don't even get me started on that - uh, hello - he is having surgery for his shoulder that is not fully operational - and yet, she expects him to lift, push, etc!
Oy vie!!! THANK YOU again for letting me vent!!!
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Lisa Co-Guide to Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports
I'm so sorry Scott has to deal with that. Tell him if he wants to come shovel my snow I'll appreciate him until the cows come home.
And on a general note...there is nothing more important then cherishing the time you have with family, especially your kids who are going to grow up and leave the nest so phooey to anyone who says otherwise.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.